Oh and for older, classic fantasy, Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle was one of my favorite fantasy series back when I read a troutton of the genre (admittedly many years ago). Great writing, great characters, and a powerful, if a bit corny, story. You might not appreciate a couple of the references one particular minor character makes if you don't know anything about DragonLance (the authors' biggest work), but DGC is an entirely separate, and substantially better, series in it's own universe.